Mark Maynard » Michiganhttp://markmaynard.com For all your Mark Maynard needs.Tue, 31 Mar 2015 00:50:55 +0000en-UShourly1State Representative Jeff Irwin on the “frightened patriots” of the open carry movement, forest ecologist Ben Connor Barrie on local trees he’d love to kill, and Matt Siegfried on the racism of Rosie the Riveter… on episode 9 of The Saturday Six Packhttp://markmaynard.com/2015/03/state-representative-jeff-irwin-on-the-frightened-patriots-of-the-open-carry-movement-forest-ecologist-ben-connor-barrie-on-ypsilanti-trees-hed-like-to-kill-and-matt-siegfried-on-the-racism-o/ http://markmaynard.com/2015/03/state-representative-jeff-irwin-on-the-frightened-patriots-of-the-open-carry-movement-forest-ecologist-ben-connor-barrie-on-ypsilanti-trees-hed-like-to-kill-and-matt-siegfried-on-the-racism-o/#commentsTue, 17 Mar 2015 01:20:50 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=32765This is Michigan State Rep Jeff Irwin, my first guest on this past weekend’s episode of The Saturday Six Pack. Our interview, which started off with a weighty conversation on corporate money, gerrymandering, and tax policy, and how, together, they’ve nearly destroyed our state, ended on a significantly lighter note when a caller by the name of Gene phoned in to ask what the Representative meant when he said, “politicians in Lansing deserve a good rimming.” [For what it’s worth, Representative Irwin had said no such thing. The caller, who was listening to the show through his phone, had apparently misheard the word “ribbing.”]

The beverage in Jeff’s hand is Local’s American Lager by Shorts Brewing, which was the beer of choice for this episode of the The Saturday Six Pack. Somewhere toward the beginning of the show, if I’m not mistaken, we give it an enthusiastically positive review… although we had a few questions about the label, which depicts two driverless boats floating eerily on a lake.

[If you would like to listen to the episode in its entirety, you can find it on both Soundcloud and iTunes. Or, if you want, you can just scroll down to end of this post, where you’ll find it embedded.]

As Representative Irwin and I talked for a full hour, we covered a lot of ground. Here, however, are a few of the highlights…

Irwin and I discussed our chances of winning back the Michigan House in 2016 and reversing the disastrous social and fiscal policies of Governor Rick Snyder. We talked at length about the immediate need to increase resources for public education, reverse the misguided “trickle down” tax policies of Rick Snyder, decrease the burden on poor and middle class Michiganders, and bring sanity back to Lansing. [Presently, Democrats hold 47 of Michigan’s 110 House seats. We need to hold our 47 and pick up 9 in 2016 if we want to stop what’s been happening these past several years.]

Speaking of sanity, at some point later in the show, when I ask Irwin what, if anything, he can do to ensure that we don’t lose the right to carry loaded guns in schools, he responds by saying that, of the 42 bills passed this year by the legislature, 11 were laws intended to ease weapons regulations. You heard that right. Over 25% of the laws passed this year in Michigan weren’t about fixing our crumbling infrastructure, or increasing funding for students, but ensuring that we have the right to own more lethal weapons and carry them with us into more places. It’s one of many sobering facts shared by Irwin over the course of our conversation. Oh, and speaking of guns, my favorite quote from Representative Irwin came during a discussion about the folks who insist on walking around the State Capital in Lansing with weapons, just to demonstrate that they can. It’s hard to tell “a violent gunman from a frightened patriot,” he said. [I love the phrase “frightened patriot.” Let’s make t-shirts and hand them out to open carry folks when we see them.]

At some point early on, our friend Pete Larson called in from outside a dance hall in Kenya, where it was 2:00 AM, directing us to play a song that he’d just emailed in. And, once we found it, we did. In the song, Pete outlined everything that he saw as being wrong with Michigan today, from the broken roads to the war on public education. Representative Irwin was offered a guitar to respond in song, but just chose to say, “You’re right, Pete.” [I think this happens at about the 18-minute mark, for those of you who just tune in each week to hear Pete’s contribution from Kenya.]

Representative Irwin and I talked about his support of Proposition 1, which, if passed in May, will raise the sales tax in Michigan to fix our roads. He explained how he would have preferred to raise the gas tax, which hasn’t been raised in Michigan since ’98, but said that Proposition 1 would be better than the alternative, which would likely pull even more money from our schools and local governments. Representative Irwin didn’t like the idea that the legislature, lacking the courage to raise taxes themselves, punted it back to voters, but said that they’d added enough to the bill in other areas to make it palatable. Among other things, the bill, if passed, would put more money into schools and public transportation, and raise the Earned Income Tax Credit, putting money back into the pockets of non-wealthy Michiganders.

We talked about increasing transparency in charter schools, so that Michigan voters, who are currently handing over their hard-earned tax dollars to for-profit charters, could actually see how their money is being spent. [Michigan currently has the most deregulated charter program in the country, which is why we have more for-profit charters than any other state in the country. Not only do we have virtually no oversight of charters, but we don’t even require they tell us how much of the money that they’re given is actually spent of educating out children.]

As Representative Irwin will be term-limited out of office in 2016, we talked about arbitrary term limits, and how, in my opinion, it just gives groups like ALEC more power, as inexperienced legislators look to them for help. As Irwin points out, the State of Michigan is a $53 billion enterprise, which takes a considerable amount of time and experience to master. And, give that, term limits increase the power of lobbyists, who offer to come in with a team of consultants to help draft legislation on complicated issues and get these bills passed. [There doesn’t seem to be any movement to end term limits, by the way, as most voters, even though they typically say they like their own representatives, feel as though legislators are inept and crooked, and want them out of office.]

Here’s Representative Irwin telling us how he got his start in politics, when, as a 22 year old Political Science undergrad at UM, he decided to run for the Washtenaw Country Board of Commissioners.

We talked of areas where he’s been finding common ground with Tea Party Republicans, like on parole and sentencing reform, and with regard to legislation requiring body cameras for police officers. And we talked about the possibility of his getting support from Republicans for his most recent bill, which, if passed, would end daylight savings time in Michigan. [He seemed to think that it might resonate with them if he referred to daylight savings time as “the tyrany of federal time.”]

Oh, and he told us how daylight savings time was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin, who claimed that it would save tons of candle wax. This, he says, could have been a joke on Franklin’s part. [Irwin, for what it’s worth, makes a pretty good case against daylight savings time, which he says not only doesn’t save us any energy, but actually leads to increased traffic accidents and the like.]

The only regret that I have is that I didn’t realize when Irwin was still in the studio that one of the recorded pieces sent in by our man-on-the-street, Chris Sandon, was actually about him. If I’d known, I would have played it when he was in the studio. If you’re interested in hearing people coming out of Ypsi bars sharing their thoughts on Jeff Irwin, you’ll find it at the 1:22-minute mark. [Invariably, they all say that they were heartbroken when they’d heard that he’d been killed by a stingray.]

And that was just the first half of the show.

During the second half, our friend Brigid Mooney from the Wurst Bar brought in a young comedian by the name of Jordan Miller. In addition to telling us about being heckled by a four year old, Miller told us about his dream to one day break out of Ypsilanti and take the stage in the big city of Ann Arbor… Here’s Miller, explaining to us how he came to be living with Saturday Six Pack Music Director Jim Cherewick.

Then local historian Matt Siegfried dropped by at about the 1:14-mark to debut a segment we’re calling the Ypsilanti History Minute. In this first installment, he both celebrates the life of local janitor turned university president HP Jacobs and tarnishes the legacy of Rosie The Riveter, who he says fought to keep black workers out of the Willow Run bomber plant… Here’s Siegfried tearing down old heroes and replacing them with better ones.

And, after that, Ben Connor Barrie came in to confesses to a heinous crime, talk about trees, and give me the gift of lead pellet-filled deer flesh. [Our discussion begins at 1:26, with Ben explaining that he’s not an arborist, but a forest ecologist. An arborist, he says, cares for trees, while a forest ecologist just knows about them, but doesn’t help.] We talk about trees in town that he’d like to kill, the biggest tree-related issues facing Ypsilanti, and the fact that palm trees are not, in fact, trees. The highlight comes at 1:48, when we launch a new segment called Boot Talk… Here’s Ben, asking me about my boots.

Lastly, this was our first episode with a house band, and I think it went really well. It was great having Jim Cherewick on hand to introduce segments and contribute spontaneous songs about various things my guests and I happened to be talking about. Here’s Jim performing a song called Crawlspace, inspired by another interview conducted outside an Ypsilanti bar by Chris Sandon, during which a woman, after noting that she had a “sexual sickness,” discusses at 2:05 how she transmitted it to someone who made the mistake of not just going “downstairs” but into her “crawlspace.” [Chris Sandon, as always, was brought to us by a generous grant from the Facethruster Corporation.]

And, lastly, here I am at the end of the show, reflecting on the evening’s events with Jim, trying to decide where we should take the show in the future…

Speaking of ideas for the future, two have come to me as I’ve been writing this summary. First, I’d like to do more on-air song-writing late in shows, taking song ideas from people in the audience. And, second, I’d like to find a way to cook Ben’s deer meat live in the studio, and then eat it by caldle-light with a lucky listener.

Oh, and this was the episode where we all felt bad for our favorite Saturday Six Pack troll, The Who Guy, who, after a perfect setup, failed to execute due to a technical difficulty… Thankfully, he rebounded later.

AND NOW, THANKS TO SCIENCE, YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING ON YOUR OWN TIME:

]]>http://markmaynard.com/2015/03/state-representative-jeff-irwin-on-the-frightened-patriots-of-the-open-carry-movement-forest-ecologist-ben-connor-barrie-on-ypsilanti-trees-hed-like-to-kill-and-matt-siegfried-on-the-racism-o/feed/16Michigan’s License to Discriminate invoked as pediatrician turns away the newborn child of a gay couplehttp://markmaynard.com/2015/02/michigans-license-to-discriminate-invoked-as-pediatrician-turns-away-the-newborn-child-of-a-gay-couple/ http://markmaynard.com/2015/02/michigans-license-to-discriminate-invoked-as-pediatrician-turns-away-the-newborn-child-of-a-gay-couple/#commentsSat, 21 Feb 2015 14:59:10 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=32421During the Michigan legislature’s lame duck session last December, as you might recall, our elected representatives in the House passed something called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which, if signed into law, would give Michiganders of faith (whatever that means) the freedom to discriminate against those they feel to be unworthy in the eyes of their god. Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, in defense of the bill, said, “This is not a license to discriminate,” and then went on to contradict himself by explaining how good Christians shouldn’t be forced to bake wedding cakes for godless homosexuals. Bolger then added, “People simply want their government to allow them to practice their faith in peace.”

Well, this week, we’ve been given an opportunity to see how this new legal protection designed to protect our defenseless Christian majority may work in practice, when the six-day old child of a lesbian couple was denied service by a doctor in Roseville, Michigan.

Married lesbian couple, Krista and Jami Contreras, upon taking their newborn child in for a checkup at Eastlake Pediatrics, were told that the doctor they had planned to see, Vesna Roi, had decided to stay home that day, rather than attend to their child. The doctor, they were told, “had prayed on it, and she won’t be able to care for” their baby.

It should be noted that another, less bigoted doctor at Eastlake Pediatrics offered to take over for Dr. Roi and look at the six-day old Bay Contreras. It’s my understanding however, that Krista and Jami Contreras chose to take their terrifyingly gay-love-covered child elsewhere.

Clearly, I would think, this is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, even if Governor Snyder has yet to sign the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, giving us the right to treat the gay like people of color were treated in the South during the Jim Crow era. Leaving all of that aside, though, I’m hoping that maybe one of my more devout readers can help me to understand the Biblical justification for Dr. Roi’s actions.

My understanding is that Jesus consorted with all types of people, right? I mean, doesn’t it mention in the Bible that he washed the feet of prostitutes and the like? And, if that’s the case, I’m wondering what his modern day followers are basing their desire to have bigotry protected under law on. Is there a passage in the Bible that I’m not aware of where Jesus says, “Let’s not care for that faggot?” or “Let’s leave that child growing up in the household of lesbians to die?”

[note: I edited the post to make it more clear that that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, while having been passed by the Michigan House, has yet to be signed into law.]

]]>http://markmaynard.com/2015/02/michigans-license-to-discriminate-invoked-as-pediatrician-turns-away-the-newborn-child-of-a-gay-couple/feed/124Unconstitutional, scientifically unsound, fiscally irresponsible, suspicion-based drug testing of welfare recipients comes to Michiganhttp://markmaynard.com/2014/12/suspicion-based-drug-testing-of-welfare-recipients-comes-to-michigan/ http://markmaynard.com/2014/12/suspicion-based-drug-testing-of-welfare-recipients-comes-to-michigan/#commentsWed, 31 Dec 2014 07:50:57 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=31724In what seems like a pretty clear attempt to appease the far right and drive more of Michigan’s poor from the public assistance rolls, Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation on the day after Christmas giving the State the power to collect and test the urine of welfare recipients suspected of using drugs. [“Merry Christmas, welfare queens!”]

The bundle of legislation, which includes House Bill 4118 and Senate Bill 275, allows for a one-year pilot program to be implemented in three as-yet-to-be-determined counties.

Leaving aside for the moment that similar programs have failed miserably elsewhere, I’m curious as to how State officials will be selecting individuals for testing. Will there be specific things they’re looking for? Will they be looking for track marks? Will being pale and disheveled be enough to bring out a piss cop to escort you into the restroom? Will race factor into it? Will a skinny, young black man in drooping pants, for instance, be more susceptible to testing than, say, a middle-aged white man, like myself, wearing a suit? I’d love to read their guidelines as to what a “possible drug user” looks like…

One wonders if they’ll have a book of photos that State employees can refer to when trying to asses if someone looks like a drug addict. And, if so, one wonders if it will include a photo of Congressman Trey Radel of Florida, who was arrested last year for cocaine possession, shortly after he voted in favor of a Republican bill that would allow states to require a clean drug test before making food stamps available to those in need. But he, of course, wasn’t a poor person of low moral character who just chose to indulge in drugs. No, according to him, he was a man struggling with “the disease of alcoholism,” who simply made “a poor choice.” Sure, both he and the food stamp-collecting drug user spent our tax dollars on illegal substances, but the difference, as they say, is black and white.

Earlier, when I mentioned that programs like this “rarely” worked, I misspoke. I don’t think there’s even a single instance of a system like this working anywhere in the United States. In Florida, their program was found unconstitutional. And, in Tennessee, when they decided to test welfare applicants, they found only 1 out 800 to be a user of illegal drugs. If there’s a place where this has actually helped people, and saved a state money, I’ve yet to see it. In Virginia they were smart. They did the math and figured out that the cost of such a program, about $1.5 million, would be over five times the amount that would be saved in unpaid benefits, so they killed it. [Here in Michigan, the Senate Fiscal Agency estimates that a statewide program would cost $700,000 to $3.4 million to run, while saving anywhere from $370,000 to $3.7 million in caseload reductions.]

My guess is that Snyder knows this, and that’s why we’re looking at a three-county rollout and not a new statewide program. This will allow him to say to those on the right that he tried to ferret out those lazy, good-for-nothing, crack-smoking welfare queens without having to actually flush away too much money. And it will probably keep several people who could use assistance from seeking it, which is clearly the objective. This isn’t about finding an addict and getting him help. This is about bullying the average poor person, and letting him know that, if he wants to eat in Michigan, he’s going to have to piss in front of us. It will invariably fail, though, as it has everywhere else. I just hate the fact that we have to go through this charade. We know that this program is, as the folks at the ACLU have so eloquently summed it up, “unconstitutional, scientifically unsound, fiscally irresponsible, and one more way the ‘War on Drugs’ is an unfair war on America’s most vulnerable populations,” but, because rich, white Republicans want it, we’re going to do it anyway. And, when it fails, we’ll just move on to find a new way to demonize the poor during our next lame duck session.

If I had more time, I’d look into how much the state budgets for the treatment of drug-addicted welfare recipients. My guess is that it’s not too much, though, and that it’s dropping every year. And I suspect that $3.4 million, if directed to such a cause, could be extremely beneficial. But, instead, we’ll single out poor people who look like drug addicts and we’ll have them pee in cups while being watched by State employees. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

And what happens to these people when we kick them off the welfare rolls? Do they just stop eating, wither away, and disappear? Or do they have the audacity to continue living, finding other, perhaps illegal ways, to stay alive? And, if so, one wonders what the costs to society might be as petty theft, prostitution and robbery rise… But surely the Republicans in Lansing have considered this, right?

I would never suggest anyone send piss though the mail, as doing so would probably get one labeled a terrorist in today’s America, but I really love the idea that Republican legislators could arrive back to work after the holiday break finding gallons and gallons of angry, stale piss waiting for them… Actually, now that I think about it, maybe mason jars full of water and yellow food coloring would do the trick, sending the message without opening anyone up to prosecution… What do you think?

]]>http://markmaynard.com/2014/12/suspicion-based-drug-testing-of-welfare-recipients-comes-to-michigan/feed/33The Porking of Michigan: We were promised high-tech jobs. Instead, we were given a pork processing plant.http://markmaynard.com/2014/12/michigan-workers-get-porked/ http://markmaynard.com/2014/12/michigan-workers-get-porked/#commentsWed, 17 Dec 2014 03:54:31 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=31613A few years ago, I interviewed an author here by the name of Ted McClelland, a former Michigander who, as you might recall, had stirred up a little bit of a shit storm after referring to our home state as “Michissippi” in an article on Salon.com about our passage of so-called right-to-work legislation. “Michigan,” said McClelland in the article, “has lost so many educated workers that the state’s leadership seems to feel it has no choice but to become a low-wage haven. The kind of place that attracts chicken processors, not software engineers.” Well, here we are, almost exactly two years later, knee-deep in yet another lame duck, race-to-the-bottom legislative session, and it looks as though McClelland was pretty much right on the money. Today, the Michigan Economic Development Council proudly announced that, thanks to their efforts, there would be 810 new jobs in the state of Michigan… at a hog slaughtering facility.

In the biggest such project landed by Michigan since Gov. Rick Snyder targeted food processing as a jobs-growth sector, Clemens Food Group, of Hatfield, Pa., plans to build a $255-million pork processing plant in Coldwater that will employ 810 workers.

The Michigan Strategic Fund approved $12.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds Tuesday for the city of Coldwater for infrastructure improvements, land acquisition, workforce development and on-the-job training for the plant.

Clemens Food CEO Doug Clemens, in an interview with the Free Press, said he aims to have the new Coldwater plant operating by late 2017, and that processing of hiring and training employees will begin in the next six months. Entry-level production jobs will pay about $13 an hour, but a wide range of higher-skill management and technical positions will also be available, he said.

Michigan took an unusually proactive approach in courting Clemens Food, a sixth-generation family-owned outfit founded in 1895 that now has 2,200 employees, nearly all based in eastern Pennsylvania…

You read that right, we’re not only getting a pork processing plant, and all of the lost fingers and environmental degradation that will invariably come along with it, but we got to pay for it!

Yup, we have the distinction of living in a state that, while cutting public education to the bone, has decided to invest millions in pork processing. That, my friends, pretty much says it all. We were promised high tech jobs, and, instead, they took our money and used it to lure one of the dirtiest industries this side of fracking to our state.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. These are the industries that thrive in areas where unions are legislated out of existence and public schools are being closed to make room for for-profit charters. Bright people do not want to live here. And that’s why, right now, we’re talking about luring an enormous slaughterhouse to Michigan instead of a cutting edge manufacturer of wind turbine blades. This is what we’ve chosen for ourselves.

Before we go any further, I’d like to share a little something from the National Institutes of Health about what the folks of Coldwater can expect in exchange for those $13 an hour, non-union jobs slitting the throats of pigs.

…Meat processing involves animal slaughter at facilities where the meat is to be sold or kept on-site for canning, cooking, curing, freezing, or making meat products. It also includes preparing byproducts such as lard, gelatine, or tallow.

Meat processing uses large quantities of water and generates wastewater which includes significant amounts of organic matter such as fat, blood, manure, hair, feathers, and bones. This wastewater can also contain disease-causing organisms, bacteria, parasite eggs, oil, grease, salt, nitrogen and ammonia compounds, phosphorus, and chlorine.

Air pollution generated by meat processing can include particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and hazardous air pollutants. Other byproducts of meat processing include odors, noise, and solid waste for treatment or disposal.

The slaughtering, processing, and packaging of meat has long been associated with a high rate of accidents, injuries, and illnesses caused by handling bacteria or infected carcasses or tissues. Meat processing has a much higher injury and illness rate than the average U.S. factory. Because of the repetitive motion involved in meat processing, worker safety and health issues also include ergonomic concerns…

…A Fremont worker, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals in the workplace, describes a recent incident involving a “gut snatcher,” the person responsible for pulling innards from the abdominal cavity. One day last year, the snatcher still had one of his hands inside the carcass when a saw cut through the spine of the animal and sliced off four of his fingers. “I think he lose two of these,” the witness says, pointing to his middle and ring fingers. Then as if an afterthought, he adds that he too has lost part of a finger—the tip of his left pinkie—to a rib cutter. And his wife also lost her index finger, severed by a fat trimmer. In every case, he says, “they washed it up but never stopped production.”

And then there are the environmental costs associated with pork processing, which, as stated above, is a very resource intensive industry, especially when it comes to water… My hope is that the folks living along the Coldwater River fare better than the folks who live along the Trinity River in Dallaw, which is known to run red with “pigs’ blood and other toxic biohazard refuse.”

I should add that I know that that there are likely good reasons to have a facility such as this located in close proximity to the animals to be processed. (As it is now, as I understand it, many animals raised in Michigan are exported for slaughter.) Putting aside for the moment the fact that American meat consumption isn’t sustainable, and can never be at present levels, given the negative impact the industry has on the environment, and the resources required to produce a pound of meat, I do imagine that having a facility like this in Michigan could perhaps cut down on highway miles traveled by meat industry trucks, and thereby have some environmental benefit. (Granted, it’s likely a drop in the bucket when the industry is looked at holistically, though.) Furthermore, not everyone is well-suited for a high-tech, “next-generation” job, like those Snyder used to talk so eloquently about. I get that. For war it’s worth, I’m also aware of the fact that this processor, Clemens Food, the 16th-largest pork producer in the United States, may not be the most evil company in the world. A friend just pointed out, for instance, that they’ve committed to switch from crates to “free-to-roam” pigpens across their operation. Sure, they’ve said that it will take them until 2022, to get all of their suppliers on board, but it’s probably still worth pointing out. Furthermore, the company states on its website that it requires employees to sign a “swine handlers code of conduct” and complete a training program in animal welfare. And, to their credit, I have not found any evidence of severe violations in the reading I’ve done thus far. (Granted, I haven’t invested a lot of time thus far.) With all of that said, though, I’m still disappointed in our State. I’m disappointed that it’s gotten to the point where dangerous jobs inside a hog processing plant for $13 an hour are seen as something to be proud of.

I may have the exact wording wrong, but, when asked why he writes dystopian fiction, Ray Bradbury responded by saying that he did so in order to “prevent it” from actually happening…

I know it’s hard to see any silver lining in what we’re experiencing today in Michigan, but, if nothing else, perhaps we’re serving that same purpose. Maybe we’re the dystopian vision of the future that prevents it from actually happening elsewhere. Maybe we’re doing a good thing here, by devolving into a gleefully under-educated band of tire-burning, pollution-breathing homophobes. Maybe our existence will demonstrate to others that certain boundaries, like those which we crossed multiple times this past week, should never be traversed.

That’s the only way I can look at current events and not become totally disheartened.

Speaking of the madness, at no time in modern Michigan is it more palpable than it is right now, during the lame duck session of our legislature, when vitally everything is on the table, from drug testing the poor to making it easier for corporations to poison us. And that, by the way, is something I believe our representatives may be working on at this very moment, as they consider SB 891, legislation that would rip open and gut the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, freeing polluters from any semblance of real accountability… The following comes from Ann Arbor Representative Jeff Irwin.

…In a nutshell, SB 891 changes Part 201 of the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act which is the section of law stipulating how much polluters must clean up their messes. In essence, this statute determines ‘how clean is clean.’

From a market-based perspective, Michigan’s environmental cleanup laws are an orgy of externalities. Ever since Michigan ditched the ‘polluter pay’ philosophy in the 1990’s, cleanup standards have been diminished across the board and corporate accountability is at a minimum. Or so we thought. SB 891 continues the slide towards rewarding the companies that pollute by reassigning their responsibilities to the taxpayers, future land owners and public health. I certainly understand that polluted sites will not be pristine when response activities are complete, but this bill will allow polluters to shirk their responsibilities even when a more effective cleanup would be possible.

If SB 891 passes, here is just a sampling of the problems we will see:

1) current law gives a preference to cleanup methods that remove the pollution rather than capping it or managing exposure. This bill removes that preference.

2) current law requires that, when polluters use deed restrictions to manage exposure – such as a deed restriction to ‘never touch that aquifer again’ – they must notify the public when they build on the land or otherwise change the land use. This bill removes that notification process, making it harder for the public to maintain these flimsy controls. Also, the bill removes the requirement that contaminated aquifers be monitored for leaks and releases.

3) current law requires that the source of pollution be contained and monitored to prevent the pollution from spreading to other properties. This proposal weakens those rules.

This is an arcane and complicated statute but it cuts to the heart of corporate responsibility. If a company pollutes our state, they should be required to contain the pollution and clean that property to a reasonable level that is protective of public health and the property rights of others. Anything less is bad for Michigan, our Great Lakes and especially the health and welfare of future generations.

Here’s hoping, wherever you might be reading this, that you are stronger than we are… Best of luck.

The people of Michigan had their chance yesterday to remove Rick Snyder and his administration from office. And, much to my surprise, they chose to given him four more years instead.

I would have thought, given our state’s history relative to organized labor, and the conversations I’ve had with folks over the past several years, that the outcome of yesterday’s election would have been dramatically different. I know that, in recent history, Democrats have done a piss poor job of voting in the midterms, but I really thought that people would be motivated to get Snyder out of office, given what he’s allowed to happen. And I would have thought, given the chance, the people of Michigan would have risen up, hand in hand, and booted Snyder from office.

But I was wrong. The people of this state are not the people that I thought that they were. At best they’re lazy and stupid. At worst, they’re close-minded racist homophobes who value neither public education, nor a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. (If it’s any consolation, I suspect it’s more that they’re lazy than evil, but I don’t know that it really matters, as the result is the same.)

And I realize that I’m being harsh when I say that my fellow Michiganders are stupid and lazy, but that’s how I feel. In time, I’m sure, I’ll find myself making excuses for them. I’ll start to blame the Koch brothers for their control of the corporate media, and John Engler for setting in motion the systematic destruction of our public education system, which has given us a generation of young citizens that don’t understand that it’s their civic responsibility to stay engaged and participate actively in government. And maybe I’ll even be willing to direct a little blame toward our Democratic candidates, who, for whatever reason, weren’t able to break through and connect with voters. But, for now, even though I know it’s not constructive, I just want to vent. I want to express my anger with those people who, even though they know how bad Snyder is for our state, still chose to stay home.

But the non-Republicans just didn’t come out. Democrats could have won this thing handily if they’d just showed up, but they didn’t… And, before someone calls me out on it, yes, I suspect that I share as much blame as the next guy. Even though I thought that I was doing my share, by writing here, and interviewing candidates, and using social media to educate my fiends and push them toward the polls, the truth is, I could have done more. I could have taken the day off from work and knocked on doors. I could have physically dragged people to their polling places, like I did during the first Obama campaign. But I didn’t. And I have to live with that. But I’m not the only one that has culpability… Why is it that not one person knocked on my door to talk about Mark Schauer this campaign season? Why is is that no one called me, a registered Democrat, on election day, asking if I’d already voted? Where was the campaign infrastructure? Where was Lon Johnson? We brought him onboard to run the Michigan Dems because we were tired of losing, and he got his ass handed to him worse that Brewer ever did. I’d say that he’s got some expelling to do.

But, as I’m sure Lon would tell you, it wasn’t just here in Michigan that we got beat. Dems stayed home everywhere… Here, for those of you who are interested in such things, is some national trend data from Talking Points Memo.

…Comparing yesterday’s exit polls to those of 2012, the first thing that jumps out at you is a big shift in age demographics: under-30 voters dropped from 19 percent of the electorate in 2012 to 13 percent in 2014, while over-65 voters climbed from 16 percent in 2012 to 22 percent in 2014. That’s quite close to the age demographics of 2010.

In terms of race and ethnicity, the white share of the electorate increased modestly from 72 percent in 2012 to 75 percent this year, not quite back up to the 77 percent whites represented in 2010. And interestingly enough, Republican performance among white voters didn’t change at all from the 59/39 margin achieved by Mitt Romney. What did change is that Republicans boosted their percentage among African-Americans from 6 percent won by Romney to 10 percent yesterday; from 27 percent to 35 percent among Latinos; and from 26 percent to 49 percent among Asians. It’s likely the age demographics had some impact on Republican minority performance, particularly among Latinos, given the relatively strong attachment of young Latinos to the Democratic Party. And in general, it’s probable more conservative minority voters were more likely to vote…

Like I said, I’m sure, in a few days, I’ll begin to calm down a bit, and I’ll start thinking more strategically. I’ll realize that, among other things, you can’t win races by calling people stupid and lazy. And, instead of trying to place blame, I’ll begin to think about what I might be able to do differently, both on this site and in my real life, in order to get my fellow Michiganders to recognize what’s going on, and realize that they have agency to do something about it. For now, though, I just want to complain about the laziness of those who didn’t vote, and the stupidity of those people who can’t see what’s happening and understand the ramifications. We’re digging a hole that it will take us generations to get back out of, and that makes me terribly sangry*… the thought that all of the civil rights and organized labor battles of the past will have to be fought all over again, and that more people will die. But that’s what’s going to happen. It may be true that people aren’t voting, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a breaking point. And I fear it’s fast approaching.

One last thing… This never would have happened had the Republicans not successfully maneuvered to get minimum wage off the ballot. Had the that proposal been in front of voters this year, I don’t doubt for a minute that we could have turned out the 129,548 additional people that we would have needed to win the Governor’s race. But we were outplayed. And, as much as I hate the fact that it happened, I have to confess that I have some level of respect for the Republicans, who played it perfectly.

[*Sangry, not to be confused with synergy, is the state of being equally sad and angry.]

]]>http://markmaynard.com/2014/11/i-am-disappointed-in-you-my-fellow-michiganders/feed/58Given Snyder’s track record in office, it wasn’t a difficult task, but Schauer destroyed him on Sunday nighthttp://markmaynard.com/2014/10/given-snyders-track-record-in-office-it-wasnt-a-difficult-task-but-schauer-destroyed-him-on-sunday-night/ http://markmaynard.com/2014/10/given-snyders-track-record-in-office-it-wasnt-a-difficult-task-but-schauer-destroyed-him-on-sunday-night/#commentsTue, 14 Oct 2014 02:32:56 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=30864According to a recent New York Times poll of 2,560 likely voters in Michigan, Democratic candidate Mark Schauer is leading Rick Snyder in the race for Governor by two points, and, judging from yesterday’s town hall event, in which both men addressed an audience of uncommitted voters, it’s not difficult to imagine that this margin could widen.

By the way, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that Land is a mom. I think that’s a good thing. I think we need more moms in the Senate. I’d just prefer that said moms would be able to articulate a thought without first stating, “Well, as a mom…” I get that it’s probably the one thing about Land that polls well, and that she’s likely been told by numerous consultants to keep bringing it up, but it just comes across as laughable when everything she says, whether it’s about ISIS or the condition of Michigan’s roads, is preceded by a reminder that two little human beings traveled through her birth canal. I don’t know if he’s kidding or not, but a friend who suffered through Land’s entire Michigan Radio segment said that she used the phrase “I’m a mom” twenty times. And maybe that wouldn’t be so bad if everything else that she said wasn’t incomprehensible gobbledygook. But it was… It was so bad that even the Republicans knew that it was bad. And that’s really saying something, given how tone-deaf the Republicans have been lately.

Speaking of Republican tone-deafness, I have a question for those of you reading this right now who are women. Which of the following ads resonates most strongly with you, the one where Rick Snyder is presented as a stylish wedding dress, or the one where you’re asked to choose your leaders (who are always male) as though you were choosing a future husband?

I know the ads sucks, but at least, in the top one, they found a real black person to be in it, and didn’t just use stock photos, which is a step in the right direction.

I’d love to see the ad ideas that they didn’t go with… Rick Snyder as a new mop? Rick Snyder as a pair of control-top pantyhose? Rick Snyder as a box of bon bons and an episode of Days of our Lives?

The whole thing makes me sick… not just the fact that they think women are stupid, but the fact that, in spite of things like this, women continue to vote Republican. But I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise. If women were willing to stick with them when they started closing down reproductive health centers, why would they stop supporting them now, right?

One last thing… For what it’s worth, I have a piece of advice for Terri Lynn Land. The next time you’re introducing yourself, Terri, stop when you get to the part where you say, “I grew up in a trailer park.” That next part, where you say, “…owned by my millionaire grandparents,” doesn’t really resonate with regular Michiganders.

Oh, and one good thing about the Land campaign… While the Republicans may have finally cut her off, they’ve already wasted a lot of their money in Michigan, trying to get her into office. In fact, the Koch brothers, though their front organization, Americans for Prosperity, have already spent $3.6 million in support of her campaign. And that’s money that they could have spent in other races… Thank you, Terri!

Another last thing… As polls show Gary Peters up by over 7% in the polls, with a 92% chance of taking Michigan’s open Senate seat, I’d like to suggest that now might be a good time for use to start moving our money as well, either to other races in Michigan, or out of state. At present, there are at least 7 winnable Senate races that are leaning Republican, most notably the races in Colorado and Iowa, where it really could go either way. (The way things look right now, the Republicans, after this election, will control 52 seats and the Democrats will control 48. If we could just swing back Iowa and Colorado, it would make an incredible difference.)

]]>http://markmaynard.com/2014/10/republicans-concede-michigan-senate-race-to-gary-peters-turning-their-back-on-the-disastrous-terri-lynn-land/feed/29The failed experiment of privatization in Michiganhttp://markmaynard.com/2014/09/the-failed-experiment-of-privatization-in-michigan/ http://markmaynard.com/2014/09/the-failed-experiment-of-privatization-in-michigan/#commentsSun, 14 Sep 2014 21:33:55 +0000http://markmaynard.com/?p=30640Our friends at Progress Michigan have just done something good. They’ve invested in a Robert Reich sound-alike to explain, in easy to understand terms, the true costs of privatization in Michigan. As fond as I am of my painstakingly-detailed and painfully-long rants on the subject, like my recent piece on the privatization of Michigan’s prison food service industry, the truth is, a four-minute video is infinitely more effective when it comes to conveying the importance of the subject matter, and the threat we’re facing from those, like Governor Snyder, who would like to see all public services privatized. And this, of course, is in spite of the evidence, which shows that, more often that not, costs have risen, quality has dropped, and corruption has increased, when we’ve handed these critical parts of Michigan’s infrastructure over to private hands… Here’s the video. If you like it, please pass it along to your friends.

Could it be that Snyder quietly forgave the $98,000 penalty because Aramark had been depositing big checks in his super secret NERD fund in the run up to this November’s race against Schauer, who, coincidentally, is now beating him in the polls? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Regardless, though, I think it’s safe to say that Snyder has been dishonest at best, in that he’s given the impression that his administration has been taking a hard line against Aramark, to the tune of $98,000, when, in fact, that wasn’t the case.

Charter schools were originally conceived as centers of experimentation and innovation where educators could try new approaches quickly on a small scale with a minimum of paperwork. Many charters have lived up to that promise, but that same openness that allows new ideas to flourish may also have left the sector vulnerable to a dangerous level of corruption.

For decades, Michigan and Florida have been on the cutting edge of shifting public education into the private sector. These policies were based on a deeply held and often explicitly stated belief that choice and market forces could net only solve education’s problems but could also alleviate much of the need for regulation.

Now recent investigations from the Detroit Free Press, South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, and the Florida League of Women Voters have painted a troubling picture of two out-of-control charter school systems.

Starting under the administrations of former governors John Engler and Jeb Bush, both Michigan and Florida have been early and enthusiastic backers of the charter school movement and have been particularly receptive to for-profit management companies. While many states prohibit full-service, for-profit companies from running charters, Michigan, and to a lesser extent Florida, has encouraged the model.

“Michigan has one of the least restrictive environments for charter schools in the entire nation,” said Casandra Ulbrich, vice president of the state Board of Education,” …“We basically opened the door to all types of different charter schools, most of which are run by for-profit management companies, and it’s led to a lot of issues, primarily… financial oversight and transparency.”

…(F)aith in the ability of market forces to supplant regulation and oversight was so strong that lawmakers in both Michigan and Florida deliberately chose to forgo conventional oversight. Governor Engler made this point clear when he explained why, despite mounting scandals, the Michigan Department of Education does not need more authority over charters.

“The oversight is ultimately the parent, just like it has always been,” Engler said. “The parent moved if (the traditional school) wasn’t working, but that was limited economically. It’s a question that misses the broader point: What goes on in schools should be the focus. The whole focus should be on education… The structural questions, frankly, are missing the point.”

This philosophy contributed to extraordinarily opaque systems in both Michigan and Florida. The Detroit Free Press reports:

Management companies insist — without much challenge from the state — that taxpayer money they receive to run a school, hire staff and pay suppliers is private, not subject to public disclosure.

Quisenberry, the president of the Michigan charter schools association, said school expenditures are “appropriately public” while “things that would be related to the company itself and its internal operations are appropriately private.”

And, guess what? Without oversight, the corruption has become rampant, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Here’s just one small example from the list, which is growing longer by the day.

…Michigan’s largest charter school management company, which also has extensive real estate holdings, charges the state so much in rent that it gets a 16 percent rate of return on its investment, roughly double the return for comparable commercial properties.

As John Chamberlin, professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Michigan, said: “When you say, ‘Line up here and you can scam the state,’ you shouldn’t be surprised if people line up and scam the state”…

I don’t know about you, but I don’t much like seeing my home state held up in front of the rest of the country as a cautionary tale. I mean, I’m glad that the rest of the country has an opportunity to learn from our mistakes, but I’d really rather it was Texas or Arizona serving as the cautionary tale, and not Michigan, the state that gave us the sit down strike, the 40 hour work week, and the middle class.

Sadly, though, over the past 20 years, we allowed this to happen.

Despite the clear warning signs, we allowed private companies to loot our public coffers at the expense of our children.

We allowed the Republican legislature to remove the caps on for-profit charters, while reducing oversight.

We sat by and watched as our public schools were shuttered and replaced by for-profit entities with no allegiance to our communities.

We watched passively as the profession of teaching was first attacked and then systematically dismantled.

Convinced by the likes of the Koch brothers that it was greedy teachers, with their “gold-plated benefits,” that were sucking our communities dry, we allowed union protections to dissolve.

We looked on silently as experienced educators were forced from their classrooms only to be replaced by young college graduates given the impossible task of reading scripts and handing out tests to ever swelling classes of disengaged kids.

And now we’re paying the price.

Our most promising young people are fleeing our state as soon as they’re old enough to, and new families aren’t coming here to take their places.